Liz and Dick Uihlein, billionaire owners of shipping company Uline and two of the GOP’s largest donors, tested positive for coronavirus, a spokesman for a circle of relatives showed CNBC on Thursday.
Liz Uihlein, who along with her husband is one of President Donald Trump’s top supporters, criticized the restrictions issued in reaction to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Dick and I tested positive at COVID. After all those long months, I don’t think we’d ever have it,” Uline CEO Liz Uihlein wrote on a Wednesday received through the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Liz Uihlein referred to Trump’s own coronavirus infection last month, in the weeks leading up to the presidential election.
“Well, Trump [has] understood Array . . . If we hadn’t worked with other people with COVID, they wouldn’t have tried us,” he wrote. The company is in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin.
A spokesman for Uihlein’s family circle told CNBC: “The email reported in the media is authentic and was distributed to Uline’s staff on November 11 on behalf of Liz Uihlein. “
“Liz exposed the Covid-19 through a non-public friend,” the spokesman said. “As soon as the exhibition was discovered, Liz tried it. “
The spokesman also said that, although the media reported otherwise, “neither Liz nor Dick attended a time at the White House on November 3. “
An election night held in the White House East Room that day.
Since then, several other people who attended this occasion tested positive for Covid-19, including White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Trump Crusade Adviser Corey Lewandowski, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Dr. Ben Carson, conservative activist David Bossie. and white house director of political affairs Brian Jack.
The Uihlein, who are around the age of 70, are ranked through the follow-up to OpenSecrets. org donations as the fifth largest donor in the United States to foreign political spending organizations, having contributed $62. 8 million to conservative teams in this election cycle.
In 2018, when the Uihlein donated nearly $40 million to such groups, the New York Times published a profile of them under the title “The Most Powerful Conservative Couple You’ve Ever Heard Of. “
Richard Uihlein is a descendant of the founder of the brewery Schlitz.
Liz Uihlein, in an interview with The Guardian newspaper in April, criticized Wisconsin residency orders issued in the early weeks of the U. S. pandemic.
“It’s overrated,” Uihlein said of the virus in the interview.
“And I wish no one ill will. You know I don’t need that, but I think it hurts at certain ages in some places and largely in many parts of the world. In the country, it is not as widespread as the press would like it to succeed.
This interview came weeks after The Times reported in late March, when many countries around the world told staff to stay home for Covid-19 considerations, that Uline had “maintained her workforce” in her jobs all week, despite the court cases employed, adding those that are crowded in her call centers , running side by side in cubicles. “
“Nothing has changed,” said a Uline worker quoted by The Times. “It’s just scary. “
The Times reported in the same article that Uline’s workers had won an email from Uihlein’s family circle promoting “big orders” from the White House last week.
On the same day as this email, the newspaper reported, a Uline call center official sent workers a note that read: “If you, or any member of your family, suffer from allergies/bloodless, or anything other than Covid-19Array . . . DO NOT contact your peers about symptoms and assumptions. By doing so, it’s causing panic in the office. “
In August, Liz Uihlein reportedly received a mandatory two-week quarantine exemption in Canada for foreign climbers while traveling on a personal plane to stop at a warehouse in Uline.
A corporate spokesman told CBC News in Canada that Liz Uihlein and two corporate executives had obtained formal exemptions from the rules, which had been in place since March.
Canada’s Minister of Public Security later stated that the resolution to allow Uline executives to make scale without quarantine was made through Canadian Border Services Agency Officers and that “they have not been provided with access. “
“CBC News learned that Halton Regional Police officials were sent to Uline’s offices in Milton on the morning of August 26 to comply with a complaint that U. S. visitors were holding meetings of giant organizations where no one was wearing a mask,” the statement reported.
In a statement Thursday to CNBC, before the spokesman for the family circle issued confirmation that the Uihleins have Covid-19, Uline said, “The fitness and protection of Uline workers remains our most sensible priority. “
“Uline has instituted many operational policy adjustments to respond to COVID-19 with fitness and protection in mind,” the company said.
“Because we are aware of the positive cases among Uline staff, we continue to immediately inform those who may be exposed to the virus, so that appropriate protocols can be temporarily implemented,” the company said.
Trump tested positive for Covid-19 in early October, as did first girl Melania Trump, her son Barron and more than 30 others related to the White House, the president’s re-election crusade and an official White House occasion held last September. announcing amy Coney Barrett’s appointment to the Supreme Court.
Trump has been criticized since early this year for his handling of the coronavirus crisis, which has resulted in more than 10 million infections and more than 240,000 deaths in the United States. During the following week, the number of new Covid-19 instances has corrupted records.
Trump, who had first said the virus would not spread, said the virus would miraculously disappear, condemned state restrictions to restrict the spread of the virus, and recommended absurd concepts for treating Covid-19, adding disinfectant injection into humans.
Do you have any confidential information? We want to hear from you.
Sign up for loose newsletters and get more CNBC in your inbox
Get it in your inbox and get more information about our services.
© 2020 CNBC LLC. All rights are reserved. An NBCUniversal department
Knowledge is a real-time snapshot: data is delayed for at least 15 minutes, monetary and global industry news, inventory quotes, and market knowledge and analysis.
Data also by